Peoples Natural Gas wants to remind homeowners, businesses and contractors to contact 811 before beginning any digging project, no matter the size, in honor of National Safe Digging Month.

Contacting 811 is required by law for all excavation projects, including major construction work and smaller home improvement projects such as planting trees and shrubs, installing mailboxes, and setting up basketball hoops and swing sets.

People’s recommends calling 811 at least three business days before digging to wait for utility locators to identify and mark the location of underground lines, and to notify the appropriate utility company immediately if damage occurs to pipelines, line markers, locator wires or warning tape.